CHENNAI: In a first time for a distance learning institute, the Tamil Nadu Opn University will start a certification course in community radio technology from the upcoming academic year, according to vice chancellor Chandrakantha Jeyabalan. Speaking to City Express, Chandrakantha said that the six-month diploma course will cover all aspects of radio broadcasting, including jockeying and will also train students in the handling, operations and maintenance of the broadcast equipment. As a precursor, TNOU has organised a capacity building workshop from June 15 to 18, where teaching faculty will be trained in the curriculum.
“We have identified teaching faculty from our media centres. Around 25 faculty members will be trained at this workshop,” she said.
“The workshop is necessary in order to address the problem of tutors not being technically sound with broadcast equipment. Because, whenever there is an issue with the equipment, experts from Delhi, Bengaluru or Chennai have to be called in. Whereas, training the faculty will enable them to rectify and solve the issue on their own,” the professor added.
The course curriculum has been prepared by the Commonwealth Educational Media Centre for Asia (CEMCA) while the faculty will be trained by the Broadcast Engineering Consultants India Limited (BECIL), which is a Govt of India enterprise under the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.
The course is placed under the School of Journalism and New Media Studies of TNOU. “Private institutions or tutoring centres which offer the course charge anywhere between Rs 1 lakh and Rs 4 lakh for the same curriculum. At TNOU, the student need only pay Rs 4000 as course fee,” said P Chitra, head (i/c) of the School of Journalism.
TNOU officials said that promoting community radio was top on their agenda. “In Tamil Nadu, there are 29 functional community radio channels. We were told by CEMCA and BECIL representatives that the Govt of India wants around 2000 community radio channels to be set up in the next year. So, we are grabbing this window of opportunity with both hands,” said Chandrakantha.
She also said that TNOU’s most recent launch of online courses has been received favourably. “Around 500 applications were received in the first four days after the launch. We expect at least 5000 applicants in the first year. As more and more courses are brought online, we expect interest in these programs to grow further,” she said.
